Assembly commends chemical weapons ban, reviews nuclear, security items; building upon disarmament momentum.

The first global chemical weapons ban--the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction--was formally approved by the General Assembly on 30 November.

The 24-article text, which will enter into force after ratification by 65 States, was to be opened for signature by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali at a special meeting in Paris in January 1993.

The result of 10 years of negotiations within the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, the treaty was commended by the Assembly in its resolution 47/39, which was adopted without a vote.

The new treaty represented the "best compromise possible" to eliminate chemical weapons, Assembly President Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria said after the resolution's adoption. It provided the international community with the "first multilaterally negotiated, global and verifiable disarmament agreement". Together with other disarmament accords, the treaty could "advance efforts towards the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction worldwide", he said.

Adolf Ritter von Wagner of Germany, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Chemical Weapons of the Conference on Disarmament, said the verification provisions in the draft had been the "most difficult to negotiate, since verification measures intrude deeply into the sovereignty of States".

A |high dose of realism'

In launching the substantive debate in the First Committee (Political and Security) on 12 October, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Vladimir Petrovsky called on Committee members to approach their work "with a high dose of realism and make action-oriented recommendations". To that end, Member States should take new approaches in dealing with substantive issues.

In addition to the chemical weapons treaty, the Committee's 23-item agenda covered a wide spectrum of disarmament concerns, including nuclear and security issues. A total of 48 texts were recommended for Assembly adoption.

On 9 December, the Assembly acted on the bulk of the texts recommended by the Committee.

In resolution 47/47, all States were urged to seek the "early discontinuance of all nuclear-test explosions for all time". The world body also called upon the Conference on Disarmament to continue efforts towards establishing an international seismic monitoring network for the effective verification of compliance with a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty.

All parties to the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water were called upon (47/46) to contribute to the success of the Treaty's Amendment Conference with the aim of achieving a comprehensive nuclear-test ban at an early date. Pending the conclusion of such a test-ban treaty, the nuclear-weapon States should suspend all nuclear-test explosions.

Other resolutions: urged an immediate nuclear-arms freeze (47/53 E); noted the decision to set up a preparatory committee to review the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) for the 1995 conference (47/52 A): asked for continued consideration of adequately verified cessation and prohibition of the production of fissionable materials for nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosive devices (47/52 C), and to begin negotiations on an international convention prohibiting the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances (47/530); and reaffirmed the need for an early agreement on effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States that nuclear force would not be used against them (47/50).

Transparency in armaments

Declaring its determination to ensure the effective operation of the Register of Conventional Arms enacted a year ago, the Assembly called upon all States to provide information on their national arms import and export policies, as well as on their legislation and administrative procedures for authorizing arms transfers, and for prevention of illicit transfers (47/52 L).

The Register--to be maintained by the UN--is designed to provide transparency in the import and export of such weaponry as battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and launchers.

Promoting security

Global and regional approaches to disarmament complement each other and should therefore be pursued simultaneously to promote peace and security, stated the Assembly in resolution 47/52 J. It called upon States to "conclude agreements, wherever possible, for nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and confidence-building measures at regional and subregional levels".

The world body called on States (47/60 A) to implement the 1970 Declaration on the Strengthening of International Security, and to conclude (47/52 G) agreements on arms limitation and confidence-building measures at the regional level.

To achieve the goals of the 1971 Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace and address the "complex ramifications of the issues involved and differing perceptions on these issues", the Assembly requested 47/59) the Ad Hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean to consider new alternative approaches.

States of South Asia were urged (47/49) to make all possible efforts to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in their region. The world body also urged (47/48) the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.

Taking action on a new item on its agenda, the Assembly welcomed (47/61) the steps taken by several countries towards consolidating the regime of military denuclearization established by the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (the Treaty of Tlatelolco), including the adoption on 26 August of amendments to that accord. It also welcomed, in particular, France's ratification of Additional Protocol I, which had given full force to the Treaty's additional protocols.

Outer space and scientific achievements

Emphasizing the need for verification measures to prevent an arms race in outer space, the Assembly called upon (47/51) all States, in particular those with "major space capabilities", to contribute to the peaceful use of that realm. The Russian Federation and the United States were urged to pursue intensively their bilateral negotiations in a constructive spirit to reach an early agreement on preventing an arms race in outer space.

In a text on scientific and technological developments and their impact on international security (47/43), the Assembly requested the Secretary-General to continue to follow those developments in order to assess emerging new technologies.

In another resolution (47/44), Member States were invited to make disarmament-related technologies available to interested countries. The Assembly called for widening multilateral dialogue, bearing in mind the proposal to seek universally acceptable guidelines to regulate the international transfer of high technology with military applications.

Antarctica and environmental threats

The Assembly urged (47/57) the international community to ensure that all activities in Antarctica were carried out exclusively for the purpose of peaceful scientific investigation for the benefit of all mankind and for the protection of the environment there.

It wanted the Secretary-General to be invited to meetings of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties.

The Assembly also urged those Parties to establish monitoring and implementation mechanisms. to ensure compliance with the Treaty's Protocol on Environmental Protection, and called for the 50-year ban on mining and prospecting in and around Antarctica to be made permanent.

In other action, all States were urged (47/52 E) to become party to the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, and to refrain from any hostile use of those techniques.

The Assembly expressed grave concern (47/52 D) regarding any use of nuclear wastes that would constitute radiological warfare and have grave implications for States' national security, as well as the recently reported effort to dump harmful wastes in Somalia. It called upon all Governments to take appropriate measures to prevent the dumping of radioactive or nuclear wastes that would infringe upon the sovereignty of States.

Other matters

The Assembly stressed (47/52 F) the growing importance of the symbiotic relationship between disarmament and development in current international relations and requested the Secretary-General to continue to implement, within available resources, the Programme of Action approved by the 1987 International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development.

Resolutions were also adopted on the following issues: a study on defensive security concepts and policies (47/52 H); prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of radiological weapons (47/52 B); confidence- and security-building measures and conventional disarmament in Europe (47/52 I); and the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-East Asia (47/53 B).

Three decisions--on the UN regional centres for peace and disarmament, regional conventional disarmament and international arms transfers--were also adopted without a vote.

|New dimensions' of disarmament

"The end of bipolarity has not diminished the need for disarmament", Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali told a special meeting on 27 October of the First Committee (Political and Security), in observance of Disarmament Week (24-30 October). "If anything, it has increased it."

Introducing his report--"New dimensions of arms regulation and disarmament in the post-cold-war era"--Mr. Boutros-Ghali said: "We would be abdicating our most basic responsibilities and duties, however, if we did not provide ourselves with the means necessary for the promotion of peace. First on the list of such means is disarmament."

The report (A/C.1/47/7) calls for a "new look" at the UN role in disarmament and proposes that the Organization's disarmament work be "intergrated, globalized and revitalized".

First, disarmament should be integrated "into the broader world agenda", since it was also becoming "more closely linked to issues of peace and security on the one hand, and socio-economic progress on the other", the Secretary-General said.

Second, he continued, "our vision must extend beyond regional balances of power". The time has come to accept the "globalization of accountability for the consequences of unrestrained military spending".

Third, "past achievements in arms control" should be strengthened, Mr. Boutros-Ghali stressed. The Non-Proliferation Treaty, when reviewed in 1995, "should be indefinitely and unconditionally extended".

Assembly President Stoyan Ganev, addressing the Committee on 27 October, called on the world community to re-dedicate its efforts to "completing the unfinished arms control agenda, together with defining the outline of a new agenda commensurate with the magnitude of the problems at hand".

The Committee also reviewed the changing role of the "triad" of the UN disarmament bodies--the First Committee, the Conference on Disarmament Commission--and highlighted the increasing role of the Security himself in disarmament and "peace enforcement" activities.